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Tag: exercise maintenance and monitoring

Smith Performance Center strength coaches lifting in a gym, demonstrating proper form and technique, emphasizing their expertise in strength training and injury prevention.

Unlocking Your Health Potential: The SPC Phase Concept of Exercise, Maintenance and Monitoring

At Smith Performance Center, you will hear us mention “phases” or see references on the website or social posts.  If this is your first introduction, welcome! The SPC Phase Concept is the cornerstone of our approach. It’s a system designed to solve health challenges, keep you moving, and provide a shared framework for our team to deliver exceptional care. Why the SPC Phases Matter Our mission is to help people stay active, healthy, and capable of enjoying their lives. The five SPC Phases guide you from identifying your problem to progressing toward peak performance. The phases aren’t a one-time journey—they form a cyclical process designed to meet you where you are, adapt to your needs, and keep you moving forward. A key turning point in this system is Phase 4: Exercise, Maintenance, and Monitoring. This phase helps you establish consistency in your health routine while addressing one of the greatest

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A speaker at Smith Performance Center giving a lecture on exercise barriers and habit formation. The discussion covers evolutionary mismatch, injury risks, shifting barriers, and the gap between knowledge and action in fitness adherence.

The 4 Reasons Exercise is Hard to Start and Maintain

Starting an exercise program usually begins with a detailed look at your goals and a plan to achieve them.  Showing up consistently is assumed. After decades in the health and wellness industry as a personal trainer, strength coach, exercise physiologist, and physical therapist, I’ve seen firsthand that the problem isn’t your goals, program structure, or knowledge of the importance of exercise. You already know regular exercise is crucial. Nor is the problem finding a place to work out, scheduling gym time, or getting the right equipment for home. The real issue is execution: showing up and doing the work.  Exercise is hard to start.  Exercise is hard to maintain. Why? There are four major reasons: Evolutionary Mismatch We did not evolve to exercise; we evolved to conserve calories. Our ancestors developed in an environment with limited access to calories. The body’s ability to conserve energy allowed humans to survive periods

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What is the difference between Phase 3: Activity Progression and Phase 4: Exercise, Maintenance, and Monitoring?

Welcome to the transition zone—phase 3 to phase 4—at Smith Performance Center. This shift marks an important move from rehabilitation to performance. We’re committed to ensuring that our community doesn’t get stuck in a permanent rehab mindset. The switch from rehab mode to peak performance mode can pose challenges, demanding careful consideration and expert guidance. Phase 3 is all about building up tissue capacity, gradually ramping up activity levels, and prioritizing overall well-being. It involves strengthening muscles, alleviating muscle inhibition, closely monitoring responses to increased activity, and addressing any lingering issues stemming from previous inactivity. Essentially, it’s about improving tissue capacity while laying down a solid foundation for what comes next. In contrast, phase 4 signifies a fresh chapter, with a focus on establishing a consistent exercise routine and raising the bar for performance standards. Our goal here isn’t just to ‘move’ but to instill a long-term commitment to fitness

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Strength coach teaching a banded isometric deadlift at Smith Performance Center, emphasizing proper technique, core activation, and injury prevention.

11 Reasons Personal Training With Our Strength Coaches Is The Right Choice For You

Struggling to Stay Consistent with Exercise? You’re Not Alone. Ever felt stuck in a fitness rut? You want to exercise, but between work, family, and old injuries, it feels impossible to stay consistent. At Smith Performance Center, we make fitness work for real life. Our strength coaches provide expert one-on-one training to help you build strength, recover from injuries, and create a sustainable routine—without the guesswork. Why Personal Training with a Strength Coach is the Right Choice We know that maintaining an active lifestyle is difficult. Technology has made life easier but also less active—more driving, more sitting, and less natural movement. Add in work commitments, past injuries, and uncertainty about the right exercises, and it’s no surprise that fitness takes a back seat. But it doesn’t have to. Working with a strength coach ensures that you’re training effectively, progressing safely, and staying accountable. Here’s how our one-on-one training at

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The 5 Big Problems Facing Clients with Pain and Injury Who Want to Get Back to an Active Lifestyle

There are numerous problems facing people in living an active, healthy life, but it can be difficult to articulate the problem that needs to be solved. Let’s look at two people dealing with low back pain. One person bent over this morning to grab a pencil and now cannot stand up straight. The second person developed back pain years ago and stopped doing certain movements because of discomfort. The pain is still present daily and they use a combination of meds, massage, and chiropractic to keep big flares up away. Their problems are different despite both dealing with low back pain. The solutions are very different. The person who just hurt their back needs a diagnosis and a home plan targeting healing strategies and triggers. This may mean more frequent visits and removing anything that makes their symptoms worse. We will likely see this person a few times per week

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The 8 Reasons All HHP Clients Go Through a Movement Assessment

The Smith Performance Center team wants to be the best in the world at helping clients who want to maintain an active lifestyle. If you search the internet, this seems like a simple problem to solve. Just do this exercise or make sure to have protein after a workout. Problem solved.  This has not been our experience.  There is an entire area of research devoted to what behaviors keep people moving and what makes them stop. Keeping people active is not simple and there are numerous reasons why a person will stop. The purpose of the movement assessment is to figure out issues that will stop you from moving. There are clues in your history, how you move, how you hurt, and how you think that will help guide us. Here are the 8 reasons we do the movement assessment: Figure out what may lead to failure Determine the right

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